Shared memory for intelligent network interface cards

ABSTRACT

In an example, there is disclosed a host-fabric interface (HFI), including: an interconnect interface to communicatively couple the HFI to an interconnect; a network interface to communicatively couple the HFI to a network; network interface logic to provide communication between the interconnect and the network; a coprocessor configured to provide an offloaded function for the network; a memory; and a caching agent configured to: designate a region of the memory as a shared memory between the HFI and a core communicatively coupled to the HFI via the interconnect; receive a memory operation directed to the shared memory; and issue a memory instruction to the memory according to the memory operation.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is a continuation (and claims the benefit of priorityunder 35 U.S.C. § 120) of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/475,216, filedMar. 31, 2017 and entitled SHARED MEMORY FOR INTELLIGENT NETWORKINTERFACE CARDS. The disclosure of the prior application is consideredpart of and is incorporated by reference in the disclosure of thisApplication.

FIELD OF THE SPECIFICATION

This disclosure relates in general to the field of cloud computing, andmore particularly, though not exclusively to, a system and method forshared memory for intelligent network interface cards.

BACKGROUND

Contemporary computing practice has moved away from hardware-specificcomputing and toward “the network is the device.” A contemporary networkmay include a data center hosting a large number of generic hardwareserver devices, contained in a server rack for example, and controlledby a hypervisor. Each hardware device may run one or more instances of avirtual device, such as a workload server or virtual desktop.

In some cases, a virtualized network may also include Network FunctionVirtualization (NFV), which provides certain network functions asvirtual appliances. These functions may be referred to as VirtualNetwork Functions (VNFs). In the past, the functions provided by theseVNFs may have been provided by bespoke hardware service appliances.

Thus, in a contemporary “cloud” architecture, both network endpoints andnetwork infrastructure may be at least partially provided in avirtualization layer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is best understood from the following detaileddescription when read with the accompanying figures. It is emphasizedthat, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, variousfeatures are not necessarily drawn to scale, and are used forillustration purposes only. Where a scale is shown, explicitly orimplicitly, it provides only one illustrative example. In otherembodiments, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarilyincreased or reduced for clarity of discussion.

FIG. 1a is a block diagram of a network according to one or moreexamples of the present specification.

FIG. 1b is a block diagram of selected components of a data center inthe network according to one or more examples of the presentspecification.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of selected components of an end-usercomputing device according to one or more examples of the presentspecification.

FIG. 3 is a high-level block diagram of a server according to one ormore examples of the present specification.

FIG. 4a is a block diagram of software-defined networking (SDN)according to one or more examples of the present specification.

FIG. 4b is a block diagram of network function virtualization (NFV)according to one or more examples of the present specification.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a platform architecture according to one ormore examples of the present specification.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a processor according to one or moreexamples of the present specification.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a computing architecture 700 according toone or more examples of the present specification.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a computing architecture according to oneor more examples of the present specification.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a data center according to one or moreexamples of the present specification.

FIG. 10 illustrates a read flow according to one or more examples of thepresent specification.

FIG. 11 illustrates a signal flow for a writeback according to one ormore examples of the present specification.

FIG. 12 illustrates a snoop flow according to one or more examples ofthe present specification.

EMBODIMENTS OF THE DISCLOSURE

The following disclosure provides many different embodiments, orexamples, for implementing different features of the present disclosure.Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below tosimplify the present disclosure. These are, of course, merely examplesand are not intended to be limiting. Further, the present disclosure mayrepeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples. Thisrepetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not initself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/orconfigurations discussed. Different embodiments may have differentadvantages, and no particular advantage is necessarily required of anyembodiment.

In modern computing, and especially in enterprise computing, it issometimes said that “the data center is the machine.” In a data center,a large number of identical or nearly identical rackmount or bladeservers may be deployed, with each one being treated as a linereplaceable unit. If a particular device fails, it is often moreeconomical to simply replace it than to try to repair it.

In this modern computing paradigm, data latency and data bandwidth arekey performance indicators that greatly affect the ability of a datacenter to meet its QoS and SLA requirements or targets. This becomes aneven greater concern as many datacenter resources are offloaded tospecific, high-volume devices. As an illustrative example, a processormay have some local cache, but rather than a local DRAM, the local cachemay interface with and write to a memory to an Intel® 3D cross point(3DXP) memory server providing persistent memory at near DRAM speeds,which may be located locally, or on a dedicated memory server.Similarly, while it is possible for storage to be local to the device,storage could also be offloaded to a storage pool, such as a RAID, RAIN,or other similar storage architecture.

This being the case, the interconnections between the various devicesbecome increasingly important. To that end, a high-speed fabric may beprovided to communicatively couple the various devices. The fabric maybe a high-speed switching fabric, such as Intel® OmniPath, or it may bea more traditional network, such as high-speed Ethernet or Infiniband.Throughout this specification, the term “fabric” should be understood torefer to any suitable fabric, interconnect, or bus between the variouscomponents of a data center.

Thus, in contrast to all-in-one devices, where the network interfacesimply provided a medium for different machines to communicate with oneanother, in a data center the fabric and its associated networkinterface may be an integral part of a data center “machine.” Throughoutthis specification a “network interface” should be understood toencompass any device that couples the compute resources to the fabric,such as a network interface card (NIC), a host fabric interface (HFI),or similar.

In a modern architecture, the network interface may be closely coupledwith the processor. In fact, in many cases, the network interface isprovided as an integrated, on-die component to ensure that the processorand the network interface realize very high speed communication toincrease bandwidth and reduce latency. In other embodiments, a separateHFI chip may be provided as a peripheral to the processor core.

Another improvement in data center architecture is the so-called“intelligent NIC”, in which a coprocessor is added to the networkinterface to provide some compute-intensive and repetitive networkfunctions. The provision of a coprocessor on a NIC may be a beneficialingredient for improving performance of the NIC and reducing Total Costof Ownership (TCO). The task performed by the coprocessor may be, by wayof nonlimiting example, encryption, IP security (IPsec), compression, orsome other highly repetitive task.

The coprocessor itself may take the form of an Application-SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), adedicated IP block, or some other tightly coupled hardware and/orsoftware solution that offloads these repetitive tasks from the CPU. Asused throughout this specification, a “coprocessor” as applied to a NICshould be understood to include any dedicated hardware, software,firmware, or combination of those solutions that offloads a task fromthe CPU.

While the NIC itself realizes benefits to the architecture, the NICstill maintains a peripheral role in relation to the CPU. When aprogrammer codes an algorithm into the CPU, the programmer remainskeenly aware of when certain computation processes require communicationacross the NIC. As the programmer remains aware of this, he may need tobreak the computation into certain non-streamlined operations, which maybe divided by such acts as sends, receives, handshakes, polling,dispatch, exception handling, or similar. These rigid boundaries betweencompute operations and communication operations inhibit the flexibilityand performance of the program. As described above, in the particularexample of a data center, latency and bandwidth are performance indiciathat a system designer may seek to optimize.

It is advantageous, therefore, to expand the role of a NIC so that itsoperations are streamlined into the flow of the CPU's operations, thusbringing the NIC even closer, logically, to the CPU than is provided byexisting architectures. Rather than issuing network operations like“send” and “receive,” the programmer can simply read to and write from afast memory block, with communication happening in the background.

To improve the value of a NIC, the present specification provides asystem and method in which computing and communication tasks may bestreamlined into cooperative operations without disturbing architecturalflexibility of the physical arrangement of the NIC logic. In oneexample, this is achieved by augmenting a smart NIC with the additionalcapability of providing a shared memory space with the CPU.

Specifically, the NIC of the present specification provides a memoryrange in the system address space of the compute node. Addresses in thisrange are mapped to a section of DRAM memory for the coprocessor of theNIC. The NIC coprocessor exposes these memory addresses to the computehost so that they can have shared access.

At a high level, this allows direct, memory-based communication betweenthe coprocessor and the CPU. Thus, when an algorithm is executingsoftware in the CPU, or conversely, when the coprocessor is providing adata flow, they can share those data and signal events via the sharedmemory region. It should be noted that the shared memory space isactually hosted in the DRAM of the coprocessor, so that when a CachingAgent (CA) of the compute host writes to or reads from the shared memoryspace, a transaction occurs in which the read or write is transferred tothe shared memory space via the interconnect between the two. This maybe via dedicated lanes in an on-die NIC, or it may be via PCIe(Peripheral Component Interconnect express) channels in a case where theNIC is offboard from the cores. It should be noted that the examples inthe FIGURES below illustrate an example in which the interconnectbetween the NIC and the core is a PCIe interface, but this is anonlimiting example. As used throughout the specification and theclaims, the interconnect may be any suitable interconnect, including anon-die interconnect.

The coherency of the shared memory space may be managed by a cachingagent provided on the NIC. When a core in the compute host issues amemory operation to the shared address space, the caching agent for thecore issues a request to the caching agent for the coprocessor via theinterconnect. The caching agent on the NIC may then handle the memoryoperation.

In terms of CPU architecture, the local caching agent to the CPU seesand treats the interfaced NIC as another QPI or PCIe agent. Thus, incertain embodiments, it may be unnecessary to make changes to thecaching agent located on the cores, or to the cores themselves. Rather,a PCIe agent tunnels memory access requests to the NIC's shared memoryvia the distinctive address range over a PCIe lane dedicated totunneling coherent traffic to the NIC. Thus, changes may be made to thePCIe interfaces, as well as to the caching agent on the NIC.

When a memory request arrives at a host PCIe interface in the NIC, theinterface directs the shared memory access request to the caching agentof the NIC's coprocessor. This caching agent is communicatively coupledto the memory controller that manages the shared DRAM. This cachingagent manages the lines within the shared DRAM and controls who “owns”the lines (e.g., a CPU cache or the coprocessor). The caching agent alsomanages the status of each memory location, which may follow a protocolsuch as MESI (Modified/Exclusive/Shared/Invalid). MESI is a known cachecoherency protocol that is an improvement on MSI (MESI withoutexclusivity), which substantially reduces the number of required memorytransactions. Other examples may employ, for example, MSI, MOSI(Modified/Owned/Shared/Invalid), or MOESI (MOSI with exclusivity).

When a memory operation occurs, the caching agent processes the requestand takes the appropriate action to maintain coherency between the coreand the coprocessor. This may include, for example, awarding ownershipof a line to the CPU, snooping as needed, reading data from the memorycontroller as needed, sending data back to the requested node togetherwith the state, or other similar operations.

Note that in this example, one caching agent and one dedicated PCIe lineare described for the sake of simplicity of the illustration. But inpractice, the number of caching agents and PCIe lanes that areimplemented may be driven by the performance, power, and costconsiderations of a particular deployment.

Note that in some examples, a shared memory may be federated acrossmultiple NICs. In this case, a System Address Decoder (SAD) may be addedto the PCIe agent of the compute node. This SAD lets the agent federatethe NIC-based shared DRAMs into the host memory space for seamlessaccess. The PCIe agent routes memory accesses that originate anywhere inthe system and that target a memory block in a particular NIC to thatNIC. Thus, each NIC may access the shared DRAM of a peer NIC, and use itto coordinate event flows and perform communication and notificationtasks autonomously, thus bypassing any intervention from the CPU, whichwould require other control paths for control, exception, and errorhandling. Where multiple NICs share memory, a hashing function may beused to home a particular memory operation.

In an embodiment, there may also be provided a novel snoop filter andcaching agent scheme located in the NIC and integrated into the PCIenode agent to optimize the communication volume to perform coherentcommunications between both types of agents.

Note that this architecture may be used not only to create a coherentaddress space between the CPU and the NIC, but may also be used toestablish a coherent address space between different NICs connectedthrough the PCIe node agent. In this case, the address space may bepartitioned between the different NICs, and the PCIe node agentre-routes requests from the NICs and CPUs to the corresponding NICowning that particular address space. This enables novel use cases inwhich the memory addresses are shared between multiple NICs and multipleCPUs.

A system and method for shared memory for intelligent network interfacecards will now be described with more particular reference to theattached FIGURES. It should be noted that throughout the FIGURES,certain reference numerals may be repeated to indicate that a particulardevice or block is wholly or substantially consistent across theFIGURES. This is not, however, intended to imply any particularrelationship between the various embodiments disclosed. In certainexamples, a genus of elements may be referred to by a particularreference numeral (“widget 10”), while individual species or examples ofthe genus may be referred to by a hyphenated numeral (“first specificwidget 10-1” and “second specific widget 10-2”).

FIG. 1a is a network-level diagram of a network 100 of a Cloud ServiceProvider (CSP) 102 according to one or more examples of the presentspecification. In the example of FIG. 1a , network 100 may be configuredto enable one or more enterprise clients 130 to provide services or datato one or more end users 120, who may operate user equipment 110 toaccess information or services via external network 172. This examplecontemplates an embodiment in which a cloud service provider 102 isitself an enterprise that provides third-party “network as a service”(NaaS) to enterprise client 130. However, this example is nonlimiting.Enterprise client 130 and CSP 102 could also be the same or a relatedentity in appropriate embodiments.

Enterprise network 170 may be any suitable network or combination of oneor more networks operating on one or more suitable networking protocols,including for example, a fabric, a local area network, an intranet, avirtual network, a wide area network, a wireless network, a cellularnetwork, or the Internet (optionally accessed via a proxy, virtualmachine, or other similar security mechanism) by way of nonlimitingexample. Enterprise network 170 may also include one or more servers,firewalls, routers, switches, security appliances, antivirus servers, orother useful network devices, which in an example may be virtualizedwithin data center 142. In this illustration, enterprise network 170 isshown as a single network for simplicity, but in some embodiments,enterprise network 170 may include a large number of networks, such asone or more enterprise intranets connected to the Internet, and mayinclude data centers in a plurality of geographic locations. Enterprisenetwork 170 may also provide access to an external network, such as theInternet, via external network 172. External network 172 may similarlybe any suitable type of network.

A data center 142 may be provided, for example as a virtual clusterrunning in a hypervisor on a plurality of rackmounted blade servers, oras a cluster of physical servers. Data center 142 may provide one ormore server functions, one or more VNFs, or one or more “microclouds” toone or more tenants in one or more hypervisors. For example, avirtualization environment such as vCenter may provide the ability todefine a plurality of “tenants,” with each tenant being functionallyseparate from each other tenant, and each tenant operating as asingle-purpose microcloud. Each microcloud may serve a distinctivefunction, and may include a plurality of Virtual Machines (VMs) of manydifferent flavors. In some embodiments, data center 142 may also providemultitenancy, in which a single instance of a function may be providedto a plurality of tenants, with data for each tenant being insulatedfrom data for each other tenant.

It should also be noted that some functionality of User Equipment (UE)110 may also be provided via data center 142. For example, onemicrocloud may provide a remote desktop hypervisor such as a Citrixworkspace, which allows end users 120 to remotely log in to a remoteenterprise desktop and access enterprise applications, workspaces, anddata. In that case, UE 110 could be a “thin client” such as a GoogleChromebook, running only a stripped-down operating system, and stillprovide user 120 useful access to enterprise resources.

One or more computing devices configured as a management console 140 mayalso operate on enterprise network 170. Management console 140 may be aspecial case of user equipment, and may provide a user interface for asecurity administrator 150 to define enterprise security and networkpolicies, which management console 140 may enforce on enterprise network170 and across client devices 110 and data center 142. In an example,management console 140 may run a server-class operating system, such asLinux, Unix, or Windows Server. In another case, management console 140may be provided as a web interface, on a desktop-class machine, or via aVM provisioned within data center 142.

Network 100 may communicate across enterprise boundary 104 with externalnetwork 172. Enterprise boundary 104 may represent a physical, logical,or other boundary. External network 172 may include, for example,websites, servers, network protocols, and other network-based services.CSP 102 may also contract with a third-party security services provider190, such as McAfee® or another security services enterprise, to providesecurity services to network 100.

It may be a goal of enterprise clients to securely provide networkservices to end users 120 via data center 142, as hosted by CSP 102. Tothat end, CSP 102 may provide certain contractual Quality of Service(QoS) guarantees and/or Service Level Agreements (SLAs). QoS may be ameasure of resource performance, and may include factors such asavailability, jitter, bit rate, throughput, error rates, and latency, toname just a few. An SLA may be a contractual agreement that may includeQoS factors, as well as factors such as “Mean Time To Recovery” (MTTR)and Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF). In general, an SLA may be ahigher-level agreement that is more relevant to an overall experience,whereas QoS may be used to measure the performance of individualcomponents. However, this should not be understood as implying a strictdivision between QoS metrics and SLA metrics.

Turning to FIG. 1b , to meet contractual QoS and SLA requirements, CSP102 may provision some number of workload clusters 118. In this example,two workload clusters, 118-1 and 118-2 are shown, each providing up to16 rackmount servers 146 in a chassis 148. These server racks may becollocated in a single data center, or may be located in differentgeographic data centers. Depending on the contractual agreements, someservers 146 may be specifically dedicated to certain enterprise clientsor tenants, while others may be shared.

Selection of a number of servers to provision in a data center is anexercise for CSP 102. CSP 102 may wish to ensure that there are enoughservers to handle network capacity, and to provide for anticipateddevice failures over time. However, provisioning too many servers 146can be costly both in terms of hardware cost, and in terms of powerconsumption. Thus, ideally, CSP 102 provisions enough servers 146 toservice all of its enterprise clients 130 and meet contractual QoS andSLA benchmarks, but not have wasted capacity.

The various devices in data center 142 may be connected to each othervia a switching fabric. The “fabric” is often referred to and treated asa single entity, but it should be understood that in some embodiments,the fabric is a high-level label for a plurality of devices that mayoperate together to form the fabric. For example, a fabric may includeone or more high speed routing and/or switching devices 174. In somecases, switching devices 174 may be hierarchical, with for example,switch 174-1 handling workload cluster 118-1, switch 174-2 handlingworkload cluster 118-2, and switch 174-3. This simple hierarchy is shownto illustrate the principle of hierarchical switching fabrics, but itshould be noted that this may be significantly simplified compared toreal-life deployments. In many cases, the hierarchy of switching fabric174 may be multifaceted and much more involved. Common networkarchitectures include hub-and-spoke architectures, and leaf-spinearchitectures.

The fabric itself may be provided by any suitable interconnecttechnology, such as Intel® OmniPath™, TrueScale™, Ultra PathInterconnect (UPI) (formerly called QPI or KTI), STL, Ethernet, PCI, orPCIe, to name just a few. Some of these will be more suitable forcertain types of deployments than others, and selecting an appropriatefabric for the instant application is an exercise of ordinary skill.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of client device 200 according to one or moreexamples of the present specification. Client device 200 may be anysuitable computing device. In various embodiments, a “computing device”may be or comprise, by way of non-limiting example, a computer,workstation, server, mainframe, virtual machine (whether emulated or ona “bare-metal” hypervisor), embedded computer, embedded controller,embedded sensor, personal digital assistant, laptop computer, cellulartelephone, IP telephone, smart phone, tablet computer, convertibletablet computer, computing appliance, network appliance, receiver,wearable computer, handheld calculator, or any other electronic,microelectronic, or microelectromechanical device for processing andcommunicating data. Any computing device may be designated as a host onthe network. Each computing device may refer to itself as a “localhost,” while any computing device external to it may be designated as a“remote host.” In one particular example, client device 200 is a virtualmachine configured for RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) as describedherein.

Client device 200 includes a processor 210 connected to a memory 220,having stored therein executable instructions for providing an operatingsystem 222 and at least software portions of a client agent 224. Othercomponents of client device 200 include a storage 250, network interface260, and peripheral interface 240. This architecture is provided by wayof example only, and is intended to be nonexclusive and nonlimiting.Furthermore, the various parts disclosed are intended to be logicaldivisions only, and need not necessarily represent physically separatehardware and/or software components. Certain computing devices providemain memory 220 and storage 250, for example, in a single physicalmemory device, and in other cases, memory 220 and/or storage 250 arefunctionally distributed across many physical devices, such as in thecase of a data center storage pool or memory server. In the case ofvirtual machines or hypervisors, all or part of a function may beprovided in the form of software or firmware running over avirtualization layer to provide the disclosed logical function. In otherexamples, a device such as a network interface 260 may provide only theminimum hardware interfaces necessary to perform its logical operation,and may rely on a software driver to provide additional necessary logic.Thus, each logical block disclosed herein is broadly intended to includeone or more logic elements configured and operable for providing thedisclosed logical operation of that block.

As used throughout this specification, “logic elements” may includehardware (including, for example, a programmable software, ASIC, orFPGA), external hardware (digital, analog, or mixed-signal), software,reciprocating software, services, drivers, interfaces, components,modules, algorithms, sensors, components, firmware, microcode,programmable logic, or objects that can coordinate to achieve a logicaloperation. Furthermore, some logic elements are provided by a tangible,nontransitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon executableinstructions for instructing a processor to perform a certain task. Sucha nontransitory medium could include, for example, a hard disk, solidstate memory or disk, Read-Only Memory (ROM), Persistent Fast Memory(PFM) (e.g., Intel® 3D Crosspoint), external storage, Redundant Array ofIndependent Disks (RAID), Redundant Array of Independent Nodes (RAIN),Network-Attached Storage (NAS), optical storage, tape drive, backupsystem, cloud storage, or any combination of the foregoing by way ofnonlimiting example. Such a medium could also include instructionsprogrammed into an FPGA, or encoded in hardware on an ASIC or processor.

In an example, processor 210 is communicatively coupled to memory 220via memory bus 270-3, which may be for example a Direct Memory Access(DMA) bus by way of example, though other memory architectures arepossible, including ones in which memory 220 communicates with processor210 via system bus 270-1 or some other bus. In data center environments,memory bus 270-3 may be, or may include, the fabric.

Processor 210 may be communicatively coupled to other devices via asystem bus 270-1. As used throughout this specification, a “bus”includes any wired or wireless interconnection line, network,connection, fabric, bundle, single bus, multiple buses, crossbarnetwork, single-stage network, multistage network, or other conductionmedium operable to carry data, signals, or power between parts of acomputing device, or between computing devices. It should be noted thatthese uses are disclosed by way of nonlimiting example only, and thatsome embodiments may omit one or more of the foregoing buses, whileothers may employ additional or different buses.

In various examples, a “processor” may include any combination of logicelements operable to execute instructions, whether loaded from memory,or implemented directly in hardware, including by way of nonlimitingexample a microprocessor, Digital Signal Processor (DSP),Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Graphics Processing Unit (GPU),Programmable Logic Array (PLA), Application-Specific Integrated Circuit(ASIC), or Virtual Machine Processor (VMP). In certain architectures, amulti-core processor may be provided, in which case processor 210 may betreated as only one core of a multicore processor, or may be treated asthe entire multicore processor, as appropriate. In some embodiments, oneor more coprocessors may also be provided for specialized or supportfunctions.

Processor 210 may be connected to memory 220 in a DMA configuration viabus 270-3. To simplify this disclosure, memory 220 is disclosed as asingle logical block, but in a physical embodiment may include one ormore blocks of any suitable volatile or nonvolatile memory technology ortechnologies, including for example Double Data Rate Random-AccessMemory (DDR RAM), Static Random-Access Memory (SRAM), DynamicRandom-Access Memory (DRAM), Persistent Fast Memory (PFM) such as Intel®3D Crosspoint (3DXP), cache, L1 or L2 memory, on-chip memory, registers,flash, Read-Only Memory (ROM), optical media, virtual memory regions,magnetic or tape memory, or similar. Memory 220 may be provided locally,or may be provided elsewhere, such as in the case of a data center witha 3DXP memory server. In certain embodiments, memory 220 may comprise arelatively low-latency volatile main memory, while storage 250 maycomprise a relatively higher-latency nonvolatile memory. However, memory220 and storage 250 need not be physically separate devices, and in someexamples may represent simply a logical separation of function. Theselines can be particularly blurred in cases where the only long-termmemory is a battery-backed RAM, or where the main memory is provided asPFM. It should also be noted that although DMA is disclosed by way ofnonlimiting example, DMA is not the only protocol consistent with thisspecification, and that other memory architectures are available.

Operating system 222 may be provided, though it is not necessary in allembodiments. For example, some embedded systems operate on “bare metal”for purposes of speed, efficiency, and resource preservation. However,in contemporary systems, it is common for even minimalist embeddedsystems to include some kind of operating system. Where it is provided,operating system 222 may include any appropriate operating system, suchas Microsoft Windows, Linux, Android, Mac OSX, Apple iOS, Unix, orsimilar. Some of the foregoing may be more often used on one type ofdevice than another. For example, desktop computers or engineeringworkstations may be more likely to use one of Microsoft Windows, Linux,Unix, or Mac OSX. Laptop computers, which are usually a portableoff-the-shelf device with fewer customization options, may be morelikely to run Microsoft Windows or Mac OSX. Mobile devices may be morelikely to run Android or iOS. Embedded devices often use an embeddedLinux or a dedicated embedded OS such as VxWorks. However, theseexamples are not intended to be limiting.

Storage 250 may be any species of memory 220, or may be a separatenonvolatile memory device. Storage 250 may include one or morenontransitory computer-readable mediums, including, by way ofnonlimiting example, a hard drive, solid-state drive, external storage,Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), Redundant Array ofIndependent Nodes (RAIN), network-attached storage, optical storage,tape drive, backup system, cloud storage, or any combination of theforegoing. Storage 250 may be, or may include therein, a database ordatabases or data stored in other configurations, and may include astored copy of operational software such as operating system 222 andsoftware portions of client agent 224. In some examples, storage 250 maybe a nontransitory computer-readable storage medium that includeshardware instructions or logic encoded as processor instructions or onan ASIC. Many other configurations are also possible, and are intendedto be encompassed within the broad scope of this specification.

Network interface 260 may be provided to communicatively couple clientdevice 200 to a wired or wireless network. A “network,” as usedthroughout this specification, may include any communicative platform ormedium operable to exchange data or information within or betweencomputing devices, including by way of nonlimiting example, Ethernet,WiFi, a fabric, an ad-hoc local network, an internet architectureproviding computing devices with the ability to electronically interact,a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), which computing devices could useto perform transactions in which they may be assisted by human operatorsor in which they may manually key data into a telephone or othersuitable electronic equipment, any Packet Data Network (PDN) offering acommunications interface or exchange between any two nodes in a system,or any Local Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), WideArea Network (WAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Virtual PrivateNetwork (VPN), intranet, or any other appropriate architecture or systemthat facilitates communications in a network or telephonic environment.Note that in certain embodiments, network interface 260 may be, or mayinclude, a Host Fabric Interface (HFI).

Client agent 224 may be a client application that accesses a functionprovided by the data center, such as search services. In one example,client agent 224 is operable to carry out computer-implemented methodsas described in this specification. Client agent 224 may include one ormore tangible nontransitory computer-readable mediums having storedthereon executable instructions operable to instruct a processor toprovide a client agent 224. Client agent 224 may also include aprocessor, with corresponding memory instructions that instruct theprocessor to carry out the desired method. As used throughout thisspecification, an “engine” includes any combination of one or more logicelements, of similar or dissimilar species, operable for and configuredto perform one or more methods or functions of the engine. In somecases, client agent 224 may include a special integrated circuitdesigned to carry out a method or a part thereof, and may also includesoftware instructions operable to instruct a processor to perform themethod. In some cases, client agent 224 may run as a “daemon” process. A“daemon” may include any program or series of executable instructions,whether implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combinationthereof that runs as a background process, a terminate-and-stay-residentprogram, a service, system extension, control panel, bootup procedure,Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) subroutine, or any similar program thatoperates without direct user interaction. In certain embodiments, daemonprocesses may run with elevated privileges in a “driver space”associated with ring 0, 1, or 2 in a protection ring architecture. Itshould also be noted that client agent 224 may also include otherhardware and software, including configuration files, registry entries,and interactive or user-mode software by way of non-limiting example.

In one example, client agent 224 includes executable instructions storedon a nontransitory medium operable to perform a method according to thisspecification. At an appropriate time, such as upon booting clientdevice 200, or upon a command from operating system 222 or a user 120,processor 210 may retrieve a copy of the instructions from storage 250and load it into memory 220. Processor 210 may then iteratively executethe instructions of client agent 224 to provide the desired method.

Peripheral interface 240 may be configured to interface with anyauxiliary device that connects to client device 200 but that is notnecessarily a part of the core architecture of client device 200. Aperipheral may be operable to provide extended functionality to clientdevice 200, and may or may not be wholly dependent on client device 200.In some cases, a peripheral may be a computing device in its own right.Peripherals may include input and output devices such as displays,terminals, printers, keyboards, mice, modems, data ports (e.g., serial,parallel, Universal Serial Bus (USB), Firewire, or similar), networkcontrollers, optical media, external storage, sensors, transducers,actuators, controllers, data acquisition buses, cameras, microphones,speakers, or external storage by way of nonlimiting example.

In one example, peripherals include display adapter 242, audio driver244, and Input/Output (I/O) driver 246. Display adapter 242 may beconfigured to provide a human-readable visual output, such as aCommand-Line Interface (CLI) or graphical desktop such as MicrosoftWindows, Apple OSX desktop, or a Unix/Linux “x” Windows System-baseddesktop. Display adapter 242 may provide output in any suitable format,such as a coaxial output, composite video, component video, VideoGraphics Array (VGA), or digital outputs such as Digital Video Interface(DVI), or High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), by way ofnonlimiting example. In some examples, display adapter 242 may include ahardware graphics card, which may have its own memory and its ownGraphics Processing Unit (GPU). Audio driver 244 may provide aninterface for audible sounds, and may include in some examples ahardware sound card. Sound output may be provided in analog (such as a3.5 mm stereo jack), component (“RCA”) stereo, or in a digital audioformat such as Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format (S/PDIF), (AudioEngineering Society-3 (AES3), Audio Engineering Society-47 (AES47),HDMI, USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi audio, by way of nonlimiting example. Notethat in embodiments where client device 200 is a virtual machine,peripherals may be provided remotely by a device used to access thevirtual machine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a server-class device 300 according to oneor more examples of the present specification. Server 300 may be anysuitable computing device, as described in connection with FIG. 2. Ingeneral, the definitions and examples of FIG. 2 may be considered asequally applicable to FIG. 3, unless specifically stated otherwise.Server 300 is described herein separately to illustrate that in certainembodiments, logical operations may be divided along a client-servermodel, wherein client device 200 provides certain localized tasks, whileserver 300 provides certain other centralized tasks.

Note that server 300 of FIG. 3 illustrates in particular the classic“Von Neumann Architecture” aspects of server 300, with a focus onfunctional blocks. Other FIGURES herein (e.g., FIGS. 4a, 4b , and 5below) may illustrate other aspects of a client or server device, withmore focus on virtualization aspects. These illustrated embodiments arenot intended to be mutually exclusive or to infer a necessarydistinction. Rather, the various views and diagrams are intended toillustrate different perspectives and aspects of these devices.

In a particular example, server device 300 may be a memory server asillustrated herein.

Server 300 includes a processor 310 connected to a memory 320, havingstored therein executable instructions for providing an operating system322 and at least software portions of a server engine 324. Server engine324 may provide a function of the data center, such as search services.Other components of server 300 include a storage 350, and host fabricinterface 360. As described in FIG. 2, each logical block may beprovided by one or more similar or dissimilar logic elements.

In an example, processor 310 is communicatively coupled to memory 320via memory bus 370-3, which may be for example a Direct Memory Access(DMA) bus. Processor 310 may be communicatively coupled to other devicesvia a system bus 370-1.

Processor 310 may be connected to memory 320 in a DMA configuration viaDMA bus 370-3, or via any other suitable memory configuration. Asdiscussed in FIG. 2, memory 320 may include one or more logic elementsof any suitable type. Memory 320 may include a persistent fast memory,such as 3DXP or similar.

Storage 350 may be any species of memory 320, or may be a separatedevice, as described in connection with storage 250 of FIG. 2. Storage350 may be, or may include therein, a database or databases or datastored in other configurations, and may include a stored copy ofoperational software such as operating system 322 and software portionsof server engine 324.

Host Fabric Interface (HFI) 360 may be provided to communicativelycouple server 300 to a wired or wireless network, including a hostfabric. A host fabric may include a switched interface forcommunicatively coupling nodes in a cloud or cloud-like environment. HFI360 is used by way of example here, though any other suitable networkinterface (as discussed in connection with network interface 260) may beused.

Server engine 324 is an engine as described in FIG. 2 and, in oneexample, includes one or more logic elements operable to carry outcomputer-implemented methods as described in this specification.Software portions of server engine 324 may run as a daemon process.

Server engine 324 may include one or more nontransitorycomputer-readable mediums having stored thereon executable instructionsoperable to instruct a processor to provide server engine 324. At anappropriate time, such as upon booting server 300 or upon a command fromoperating system 322 or a user 120 or security administrator 150,processor 310 may retrieve a copy of server engine 324 (or softwareportions thereof) from storage 350 and load it into memory 320.Processor 310 may then iteratively execute the instructions of serverengine 324 to provide the desired method.

FIG. 4a is a block diagram of a software-defined network 400. InSoftware Defined Networking (SDN), a data plane is separated from acontrol plane to realize certain advantages. SDN is only one flavor ofvirtualization, shown here to illustrate one option for a network setup.

Network Function Virtualization (NFV), illustrated in FIG. 4b , is asecond nonlimiting flavor of network virtualization, often treated as anadd-on or improvement to SDN, but sometimes treated as a separateentity. NFV was originally envisioned as a method for providing reducedCapital Expenditure (Capex) and Operating Expenses (Opex) fortelecommunication services, which relied heavily on fast, single purposeservice appliances. One important feature of NFV is replacingproprietary, special-purpose hardware appliances with virtual appliancesrunning on Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware within a virtualizedenvironment. In addition to Capex and Opex savings, NFV provides a moreagile and adaptable network. As network loads change, Virtual NetworkFunctions (VNFs) can be provisioned (“spun up”) or removed (“spun down”)to meet network demands. For example, in times of high load, more loadbalancer VNFs may be spun up to distribute traffic to more workloadservers (which may themselves be virtual machines). In times when moresuspicious traffic is experienced, additional firewalls or Deep PacketInspection (DPI) appliances may be needed.

Because NFV started out as a telecommunications feature, many NFVinstances are focused on telecommunications. However, NFV is not limitedto telecommunication services. In a broad sense, NFV includes one ormore VNFs running within a Network Function VirtualizationInfrastructure (NFVI). Often, the VNFs are in-line service functionsthat are separate from workload servers or other nodes (in many cases,workload-type functions were long since virtualized). These VNFs can bechained together into a service chain, which may be defined by a virtualsubnetwork, and which may include a serial string of network servicesthat provide behind-the-scenes work, such as security, logging, billing,and similar. In one example, an incoming packet passes through a chainof services in a service chain, with one or more of the services beingprovided by a VNF, whereas historically each of those functions may havebeen provided by bespoke hardware in a physical service appliance.Because NFVs can be spun up and spun down to meet demand, the allocationof hardware and other resources can be made more efficient. Processingresources can be allocated to meet the greatest demand, whereas withphysical service appliances, any unused capacity on an appliance issimply wasted, and increasing capacity to meet demand required pluggingin a physical (expensive) bespoke service appliance.

The illustrations of FIGS. 4a and 4b may be considered more functional,while in comparison the illustration of FIG. 1 may be more of ahigh-level logical layout of the network. It should be understood,however, that SDN 400 (FIG. 4a ), NFVI 404 (FIG. 4b ), and enterprisenetwork 100 may be the same network, or may be separate networks.

In FIG. 4a , SDN 400 may include an SDN controller 410, a plurality ofnetwork devices 430, and a plurality of host devices 440. Some or all ofSDN controller 410, network devices 430, and host devices 440 may beembodied within workload cluster 142 of FIG. 1, or may otherwise form apart of enterprise network 170.

SDN 400 is controlled by an SDN controller 410. SDN controller 410 iscommunicatively coupled to a plurality of network devices 430.Specifically, ND1 430-1, ND2 430-2, and ND5 430-5 are directlycommunicatively coupled to SDN controller 410. Network devices and ND3430-3 and ND4 430-4 are not directly coupled to SDN controller 410, butrather coupled via the intermediate devices, such as ND2 430-2, and ND5430-5.

Some network devices 430 also communicatively couple directly to hostdevices 440. Specifically, network device ND1 directly couples to host A440-1, which has IP address 10.0.0.10, and MAC address FA:16:3:01:61:8.Network device ND2 430-2 directly couples to host B 440-2, which has IPaddress 10.0.0.20, and MAC address FA:16:3:01:63: B3. Network device ND5430-5 directly couples to host D 440-3, which has IP address 10.0.0.30,and MAC address FA:16:3:01:54:83.

Network devices 430 may be configured to perform a variety of networkfunctions, such as, by way of nonlimiting example, load-balancing,firewall, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), DNS, antivirus, or any othersuitable network function. The particular arrangement ofinterconnections between network devices 430 and from network devices430 to host devices 440 may be determined by the particular networkconfiguration and needs. Thus, the specific configuration of FIG. 4ashould be understood to be an illustrative example only.

Each network device 430 may have a plurality of ingress and or egressinterfaces, such as physical Ethernet or fabric ports. In an example,each interface may have a label or new name, such as P1, P2, P3, P4, P5,and so on. Thus, certain aspects of the network layout can be determinedby inspecting which devices are connected on which interface. Forexample, network device ND1 430-1 has an ingress interface for receivinginstructions and communicating with SDN controller 410. ND1 430-1 alsohas an interface P1 communicatively coupled to host A 440-1. ND1 430-1has interface P2 that is communicatively coupled to ND2 430-2. In thecase of ND2 430-2, it also couples to ND1 430-1 on its own interface P2,and couples to host B 440-2 via interface P1. ND2 430-2 communicativelycouples to intermediate devices ND3 430-3 and ND4 430-4 via interfacesP3 and P4 respectively. Additional interface definitions are visiblethroughout the figure.

A flow table may be defined for traffic as it flows from one interfaceto another. This flow table is used so that a network device, such asND2 430-2 can determine, after receiving a packet, where to send itnext.

For example, the following flow tables may be defined for ND1 430-1-ND4430-4.

TABLE 1 ND1 Flow Rule Ingress Source Source I/F MAC Destination Mac IPDest. IP Action P1 ANY fa:16:3e:01:54:a3 ANY 10.0.0.30 P2

TABLE 2 ND2 Flow Rule Ingress Source Source I/F MAC Destination Mac IPDest. IP Action P2 ANY fa:16:3e:01:54:a3 ANY 10.0.0.30 P4

TABLE 3 ND3 Flow Rule Ingress Source Source I/F MAC Destination Mac IPDest. IP Action P1 ANY fa:16:3e:01:54:a3 ANY 10.0.0.30 P3

TABLE 4 ND4 Flow Rule Ingress Source Source I/F MAC Destination Mac IPDest. IP Action P3 ANY fa:16:3e:01:54:a3 ANY 10.0.0.30 P1

FIG. 4b is a block diagram of a Network Function Virtualization (NFV)architecture according to one or more examples of the presentspecification. Like SDN, NFV is a subset of network virtualization.Thus, the network as illustrated in FIG. 4b may be defined instead of orin addition to the network of FIG. 4a . In other words, certain portionsof the network may rely on SDN, while other portions (or the sameportions) may rely on NFV.

In the example of FIG. 4b , an NFV orchestrator 402 manages a number ofthe VNFs running on an NFVI 404. NFV requires nontrivial resourcemanagement, such as allocating a very large pool of compute resourcesamong appropriate numbers of instances of each VNF, managing connectionsbetween VNFs, determining how many instances of each VNF to allocate,and managing memory, storage, and network connections. This may requirecomplex software management, thus the need for NFV orchestrator 402.

Note that VNF orchestrator 402 itself is usually virtualized (ratherthan a special-purpose hardware appliance). NFV orchestrator 402 may beintegrated within an existing SDN system, wherein an Operations SupportSystem (OSS) manages the SDN. This may interact with cloud resourcemanagement systems (e.g., OpenStack) to provide NVF orchestration. Thereare many commercially-available, off-the-shelf, proprietary, and opensource solutions for NFV orchestration and management (sometimesreferred to as NFV MANO). In addition to NFV orchestrator 402, NFV MANOmay also include functions such as Virtualized Infrastructure Management(VIM) and a VNF manager.

An NFVI 404 may include the hardware, software, and other infrastructureto enable VNFs to run. This may include, for example, a rack or severalracks of blade or slot servers (including, e.g., processors, memory, andstorage), one or more data centers, other hardware resources distributedacross one or more geographic locations, hardware switches, or networkinterfaces. An NFVI 404 may also include the software architecture thatenables hypervisors to run and be managed by NFV orchestrator 402. NFVI402 may include NFVI Points of Presence (NFVI-Pops), where VNFs aredeployed by the operator.

Running on NFVI 404 are a number of virtual machines, each of which inthis example is a VNF providing a virtual service appliance. Theseinclude, as nonlimiting and illustrative examples, VNF 1 410, which is afirewall, VNF 2 412, which is an intrusion detection system, VNF 3 414,which is a load balancer, VNF 4 416, which is a router, VNF 5 418, whichis a session border controller, VNF 6 420, which is a Deep PacketInspection (DPI) service, VNF 7 422, which is a Network AddressTranslation (NAT) module, VNF 8 424, which provides call securityassociation, and VNF 9 426, which is a second load balancer spun up tomeet increased demand.

Firewall 410 is a security appliance that monitors and controls thetraffic (both incoming and outgoing), based on matching traffic to alist of “firewall rules.” Firewall 410 may be a barrier between arelatively trusted (e.g., internal) network, and a relatively untrustednetwork (e.g., the internet). Once traffic has passed inspection byfirewall 410, it may be forwarded to other parts of the network.

Intrusion detection 412 monitors the network for malicious activity orpolicy violations. Incidents may be reported to security administrator150, or collected and analyzed by a Security Information and EventManagement (SIEM) system. In some cases, intrusion detection 412 mayalso include antivirus or antimalware scanners.

Load balancers 414 and 426 may farm traffic out to a group ofsubstantially identical workload servers to distribute the work in afair fashion. In one example, a load balancer provisions a number oftraffic “buckets,” and assigns each bucket to a workload server.Incoming traffic is assigned to a bucket based on a factor, such as ahash of the source IP address. Because the hashes are assumed to befairly evenly distributed, each workload server receives a reasonableamount of traffic.

Router 416 forwards packets between networks or subnetworks. Forexample, router 416 may include one or more ingress interfaces, and aplurality of egress interfaces, with each egress interface beingassociated with a resource, subnetwork, virtual private network, orother division. When traffic comes in on an ingress interface, router416 determines what destination it should go to, and routes the packetto the appropriate egress interface.

Session border controller 418 controls voice over IP (VoIP) signaling,as well as the media streams to set up, conduct, and terminate calls. Inthis context, “session” refers to a communication event (e.g., a“call”). “Border” refers to a demarcation between two different parts ofa network (similar to a firewall).

DPI appliance 420 provides deep packet inspection, including examiningnot only the header, but also the content of a packet to search forPotentially Unwanted Content (PUC), such as protocol non-compliance,malware, viruses, spam, or intrusions.

NAT module 422 provides network address translation services to remapone IP address space into another (e.g., mapping addresses within aprivate subnetwork onto the larger internet).

Call security association 424 creates a security association for a callor other session (see session border controller 418 above). Maintainingthis security association may be critical, as the call may be dropped ifthe security association is broken.

The illustration of FIG. 4 shows that a number of VNFs have beenprovisioned and exist within NFVI 404. This figure does not necessarilyillustrate any relationship between the VNFs and the larger network.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of components of a computing platform500 according to one or more examples of the present specification. Inthe embodiment depicted, computer platform 500 includes a plurality ofplatforms 502 and system management platform 506 coupled togetherthrough network 508. In other embodiments, a computer system may includeany suitable number of (i.e., one or more) platforms. In someembodiments (e.g., when a computer system only includes a singleplatform), all or a portion of the system management platform 506 may beincluded on a platform 502. A platform 502 may include platform logic510 with one or more central processing units (CPUs) 512, memories 514(which may include any number of different modules), chipsets 516,communication interfaces 518, and any other suitable hardware and/orsoftware to execute a hypervisor 520 or other operating system capableof executing workloads associated with applications running on platform502. In some embodiments, a platform 502 may function as a host platformfor one or more guest systems 522 that invoke these applications.Platform 500 may represent any suitable computing environment, such as ahigh performance computing environment, a datacenter, a communicationsservice provider infrastructure (e.g., one or more portions of anEvolved Packet Core), an in-memory computing environment, a computingsystem of a vehicle (e.g., an automobile or airplane), an Internet ofThings environment, an industrial control system, other computingenvironment, or combination thereof.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, accumulated stressand/or rates of stress accumulated to a plurality of hardware resources(e.g., cores and uncores) are monitored and entities (e.g., systemmanagement platform 506, hypervisor 520, or other operating system) ofcomputer platform 500 may assign hardware resources of platform logic510 to perform workloads in accordance with the stress information. Forexample, system management platform 506, hypervisor 520 or otheroperating system, or CPUs 512 may determine one or more cores toschedule a workload onto based on the stress information. In someembodiments, self-diagnostic capabilities may be combined with thestress monitoring to more accurately determine the health of thehardware resources. Such embodiments may allow optimization indeployments including Network Function Virtualization (NFV), SoftwareDefined Networking (SDN), or Mission Critical applications. For example,the stress information may be consulted during the initial placement ofVNFs (Virtual Network Functions) or for migration from one platform toanother in order to improve reliability and capacity utilization.

Each platform 502 may include platform logic 510. Platform logic 510comprises, among other logic enabling the functionality of platform 502,one or more CPUs 512, memory 514, one or more chipsets 516, andcommunication interface 518. Although three platforms are illustrated,computer platform 500 may include any suitable number of platforms. Invarious embodiments, a platform 502 may reside on a circuit board thatis installed in a chassis, rack, or other suitable structure thatcomprises multiple platforms coupled together through network 508 (whichmay comprise, e.g., a rack or backplane switch).

CPUs 512 may each comprise any suitable number of processor cores andsupporting logic (e.g., uncores). The cores may be coupled to eachother, to memory 514, to at least one chipset 516, and/or tocommunication interface 518, through one or more controllers residing onCPU 612 and/or chipset 516. In particular embodiments, a CPU 612 isembodied within a socket that is permanently or removably coupled toplatform 502. CPU 612 is described in further detail below in connectionwith FIG. 2. Although four CPUs are shown, a platform 502 may includeany suitable number of CPUs.

Memory 514 may comprise any form of volatile or nonvolatile memoryincluding, without limitation, magnetic media (e.g., one or more tapedrives), optical media, Random Access Memory (RAM), Read-Only Memory(ROM), flash memory, removable media, or any other suitable local orremote memory component or components. Memory 514 may be used for short,medium, and/or long term storage by platform 502. Memory 514 may storeany suitable data or information utilized by platform logic 510,including software embedded in a computer readable medium, and/orencoded logic incorporated in hardware or otherwise stored (e.g.,firmware). Memory 514 may store data that is used by cores of CPUs 512.In some embodiments, memory 514 may also comprise storage forinstructions that may be executed by the cores of CPUs 512 or otherprocessing elements (e.g., logic resident on chipsets 516) to providefunctionality associated with the manageability engine 526 or othercomponents of platform logic 510. Additionally or alternatively,chipsets 516 may each comprise memory that may have any of thecharacteristics described herein with respect to memory 514. Memory 514may also store the results and/or intermediate results of the variouscalculations and determinations performed by CPUs 512 or processingelements on chipsets 516. In various embodiments, memory 514 maycomprise one or more modules of system memory coupled to the CPUsthrough memory controllers (which may be external to or integrated withCPUs 512). In various embodiments, one or more particular modules ofmemory 514 may be dedicated to a particular CPU 612 or other processingdevice or may be shared across multiple CPUs 512 or other processingdevices.

In various embodiments, memory 514 may store stress information (such asaccumulated stress values associated with hardware resources of platformlogic 510 in non-volatile memory, such that when power is lost, theaccumulated stress values are maintained). In particular embodiments, ahardware resource may comprise nonvolatile memory (e.g., on the same dieas the particular hardware resource) for storing the hardware resource'saccumulated stress value.

A platform 502 may also include one or more chipsets 516 comprising anysuitable logic to support the operation of the CPUs 512. In variousembodiments, chipset 516 may reside on the same die or package as a CPU612 or on one or more different dies or packages. Each chipset maysupport any suitable number of CPUs 512. A chipset 516 may also includeone or more controllers to couple other components of platform logic 510(e.g., communication interface 518 or memory 514) to one or more CPUs.Additionally or alternatively, the CPUs 512 may include integratedcontrollers. For example, communication interface 518 could be coupleddirectly to CPUs 512 via integrated I/O controllers resident on eachCPU.

In the embodiment depicted, each chipset 516 also includes amanageability engine 526. Manageability engine 526 may include anysuitable logic to support the operation of chipset 516. In a particularembodiment, manageability engine 526 (which may also be referred to asan innovation engine) is capable of collecting real-time telemetry datafrom the chipset 516, the CPU(s) 512 and/or memory 514 managed by thechipset 516, other components of platform logic 510, and/or variousconnections between components of platform logic 510. In variousembodiments, the telemetry data collected includes the stressinformation described herein.

In various embodiments, the manageability engine 526 operates as anout-of-band asynchronous compute agent which is capable of interfacingwith the various elements of platform logic 510 to collect telemetrydata with no or minimal disruption to running processes on CPUs 512. Forexample, manageability engine 526 may comprise a dedicated processingelement (e.g., a processor, controller, or other logic) on chipset 516which provides the functionality of manageability engine 526 (e.g., byexecuting software instructions), thus conserving processing cycles ofCPUs 512 for operations associated with the workloads performed by theplatform logic 510. Moreover the dedicated logic for the manageabilityengine 526 may operate asynchronously with respect to the CPUs 512 andmay gather at least some of the telemetry data without increasing theload on the CPUs.

The manageability engine 526 may process telemetry data it collects(specific examples of the processing of stress information will beprovided herein). In various embodiments, manageability engine 526reports the data it collects and/or the results of its processing toother elements in the computer system, such as one or more hypervisors520 or other operating systems and/or system management software (whichmay run on any suitable logic such as system management platform 506).In some embodiments, the telemetry data is updated and reportedperiodically to one or more of these entities. In particularembodiments, a critical event such as a core that has accumulated anexcessive amount of stress may be reported prior to the normal intervalfor reporting telemetry data (e.g., a notification may be sentimmediately upon detection).

In various embodiments, a manageability engine 526 may includeprogrammable code configurable to set which CPU(s) 512 a particularchipset 516 will manage and/or which telemetry data will be collected.

Chipsets 516 also each include a communication interface 528.Communication interface 528 may be used for the communication ofsignaling and/or data between chipset 516 and one or more I/O devices,one or more networks 508, and/or one or more devices coupled to network508 (e.g., system management platform 506). For example, communicationinterface 528 may be used to send and receive network traffic such asdata packets. In a particular embodiment, communication interface 528comprises one or more physical Network Interface Controllers (NICs),also known as network interface cards or network adapters. A NIC mayinclude electronic circuitry to communicate using any suitable physicallayer and data link layer standard such as Ethernet (e.g., as defined bya IEEE 802.3 standard), Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, Wi-Fi, or othersuitable standard. A NIC may include one or more physical ports that maycouple to a cable (e.g., an Ethernet cable). A NIC may enablecommunication between any suitable element of chipset 516 (e.g.,manageability engine 526 or switch 530) and another device coupled tonetwork 508. In some embodiments, network 508 may comprise a switch withbridging and/or routing functions that is external to the platform 502and operable to couple various NICs distributed throughout the computerplatform 500 (e.g., on different platforms) to each other. In variousembodiments a NIC may be integrated with the chipset (i.e., may be onthe same integrated circuit or circuit board as the rest of the chipsetlogic) or may be on a different integrated circuit or circuit board thatis electromechanically coupled to the chipset.

In particular embodiments, communication interface 528 may allowcommunication of data (e.g., between the manageability engine 526 andthe system management platform 506) associated with management andmonitoring functions performed by manageability engine 526. In variousembodiments, manageability engine 526 may utilize elements (e.g., one ormore NICs) of communication interface 528 to report the telemetry data(e.g., to system management platform 506) in order to reserve usage ofNICs of communication interface 518 for operations associated withworkloads performed by platform logic 510. In some embodiments,communication interface 528 may also allow I/O devices integrated withor external to the platform (e.g., disk drives, other NICs, etc.) tocommunicate with the CPU cores.

Switch 530 may couple to various ports (e.g., provided by NICs) ofcommunication interface 528 and may switch data between these ports andvarious components of chipset 516 (e.g., one or more PeripheralComponent Interconnect Express (PCIe) lanes coupled to CPUs 512). Switch530 may be a physical or virtual (i.e., software) switch.

Platform logic 510 may include an additional communication interface518. Similar to communication interface 528, communication interface 518may be used for the communication of signaling and/or data betweenplatform logic 510 and one or more networks 508 and one or more devicescoupled to the network 508. For example, communication interface 518 maybe used to send and receive network traffic such as data packets. In aparticular embodiment, communication interface 518 comprises one or morephysical NICs. These NICs may enable communication between any suitableelement of platform logic 510 (e.g., CPUs 512 or memory 514) and anotherdevice coupled to network 508 (e.g., elements of other platforms orremote computing devices coupled to network 508 through one or morenetworks). In particular embodiments, communication interface 518 mayallow devices external to the platform (e.g., disk drives, other NICs,etc.) to communicate with the CPU cores. In various embodiments, NICs ofcommunication interface 518 may be coupled to the CPUs through I/Ocontrollers (which may be external to or integrated with CPUs 512).

Platform logic 510 may receive and perform any suitable types ofworkloads. A workload may include any request to utilize one or moreresources of platform logic 510, such as one or more cores or associatedlogic. For example, a workload may comprise a request to instantiate asoftware component, such as an I/O device driver 524 or guest system522; a request to process a network packet received from a virtualmachine 532 or device external to platform 502 (such as a network nodecoupled to network 508); a request to execute a process or threadassociated with a guest system 522, an application running on platform502, a hypervisor 520 or other operating system running on platform 502;or other suitable processing request.

In various embodiments, platform 502 may execute any number of guestsystems 522. A guest system may comprise a single virtual machine (e.g.,virtual machine 532 a or 532 b) or multiple virtual machines operatingtogether (e.g., a virtual network function (VNF) 534 or a servicefunction chain (SFC) 536). As depicted, various embodiments may includea variety of types of guest systems 522 present on the same platform502.

A virtual machine 532 may emulate a computer system with its owndedicated hardware. A virtual machine 532 may run a guest operatingsystem on top of the hypervisor 520. The components of platform logic510 (e.g., CPUs 512, memory 514, chipset 516, and communicationinterface 518) may be virtualized such that it appears to the guestoperating system that the virtual machine 532 has its own dedicatedcomponents.

A virtual machine 532 may include a virtualized NIC (vNIC), which isused by the virtual machine as its network interface. A vNIC may beassigned a Media Access Control (MAC) address or other identifier, thusallowing multiple virtual machines 532 to be individually addressable ina network.

In some embodiments, a virtual machine 532 b may be paravirtualized. Forexample, the virtual machine 532 b may include augmented drivers (e.g.,drivers that provide higher performance or have higher bandwidthinterfaces to underlying resources or capabilities provided by thehypervisor 520). For example, an augmented driver may have a fasterinterface to underlying virtual switch 538 for higher networkperformance as compared to default drivers.

VNF 534 may comprise a software implementation of a functional buildingblock with defined interfaces and behavior that can be deployed in avirtualized infrastructure. In particular embodiments, a VNF 534 mayinclude one or more virtual machines 532 that collectively providespecific functionalities (e.g., Wide Area Network (WAN) optimization,Virtual Private Network (VPN) termination, firewall operations,load-balancing operations, security functions, etc.). A VNF 534 runningon platform logic 510 may provide the same functionality as traditionalnetwork components implemented through dedicated hardware. For example,a VNF 534 may include components to perform any suitable NFV workloads,such as virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) components, MobilityManagement Entities (MME), 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)control and data plane components, etc.

SFC 536 is a group of VNFs 534 organized as a chain to perform a seriesof operations, such as network packet processing operations. Servicefunction chaining may provide the ability to define an ordered list ofnetwork services (e.g., firewalls, load balancers) that are stitchedtogether in the network to create a service chain.

A hypervisor 520 (also known as a virtual machine monitor) may compriselogic to create and run guest systems 522. The hypervisor 520 maypresent guest operating systems run by virtual machines with a virtualoperating platform (i.e., it appears to the virtual machines that theyare running on separate physical nodes when they are actuallyconsolidated onto a single hardware platform) and manage the executionof the guest operating systems by platform logic 510. Services ofhypervisor 520 may be provided by virtualizing in software or throughhardware assisted resources that require minimal software intervention,or both. Multiple instances of a variety of guest operating systems maybe managed by the hypervisor 520. Each platform 502 may have a separateinstantiation of a hypervisor 520.

Hypervisor 520 may be a native or bare-metal hypervisor that runsdirectly on platform logic 510 to control the platform logic and managethe guest operating systems. Alternatively, hypervisor 520 may be ahosted hypervisor that runs on a host operating system and abstracts theguest operating systems from the host operating system. Variousembodiments may include one or more non-virtualized platforms 502, inwhich case any suitable characteristics or functions of hypervisor 520described herein may apply to an operating system of the non-virtualizedplatform.

Hypervisor 520 may include a virtual switch 538 that may provide virtualswitching and/or routing functions to virtual machines of guest systems522. The virtual switch 538 may comprise a logical switching fabric thatcouples the vNICs of the virtual machines 532 to each other, thuscreating a virtual network through which virtual machines maycommunicate with each other. Virtual switch 538 may also be coupled toone or more networks (e.g., network 508) via physical NICs ofcommunication interface 518 so as to allow communication between virtualmachines 532 and one or more network nodes external to platform 502(e.g., a virtual machine running on a different platform 502 or a nodethat is coupled to platform 502 through the Internet or other network).Virtual switch 538 may comprise a software element that is executedusing components of platform logic 510. In various embodiments,hypervisor 520 may be in communication with any suitable entity (e.g., aSDN controller) which may cause hypervisor 520 to reconfigure theparameters of virtual switch 538 in response to changing conditions inplatform 502 (e.g., the addition or deletion of virtual machines 532 oridentification of optimizations that may be made to enhance performanceof the platform).

Hypervisor 520 may also include resource allocation logic 544 which mayinclude logic for determining allocation of platform resources based onthe telemetry data (which may include stress information). Resourceallocation logic 544 may also include logic for communicating withvarious components of platform logic 510 entities of platform 502 toimplement such optimization, such as components of platform logic 502.For example, resource allocation logic 544 may direct which hardwareresources of platform logic 510 will be used to perform workloads basedon stress information.

Any suitable logic may make one or more of these optimization decisions.For example, system management platform 506; resource allocation logic544 of hypervisor 520 or other operating system; or other logic ofplatform 502 or computer platform 500 may be capable of making suchdecisions (either alone or in combination with other elements of theplatform 502). In a particular embodiment, system management platform506 may communicate (using in-band or out-of-band communication) withthe hypervisor 520 to specify the optimizations that should be used inorder to meet policies stored at the system management platform.

In various embodiments, the system management platform 506 may receivetelemetry data from and manage workload placement across multipleplatforms 502. The system management platform 506 may communicate withhypervisors 520 (e.g., in an out-of-band manner) or other operatingsystems of the various platforms 502 to implement workload placementsdirected by the system management platform.

The elements of platform logic 510 may be coupled together in anysuitable manner. For example, a bus may couple any of the componentstogether. A bus may include any known interconnect, such as a multi-dropbus, a mesh interconnect, a ring interconnect, a point-to-pointinterconnect, a serial interconnect, a parallel bus, a coherent (e.g.,cache coherent) bus, a layered protocol architecture, a differentialbus, or a Gunning Transceiver Logic (GTL) bus.

Elements of the computer platform 500 may be coupled together in anysuitable manner such as through one or more networks 508. A network 508may be any suitable network or combination of one or more networksoperating using one or more suitable networking protocols. A network mayrepresent a series of nodes, points, and interconnected communicationpaths for receiving and transmitting packets of information thatpropagate through a communication system. For example, a network mayinclude one or more firewalls, routers, switches, security appliances,antivirus servers, or other useful network devices. A network offerscommunicative interfaces between sources and/or hosts, and may compriseany Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN),Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), Intranet, Extranet, Internet, Wide AreaNetwork (WAN), Virtual Private Network (VPN), cellular network, or anyother appropriate architecture or system that facilitates communicationsin a network environment. A network can comprise any number of hardwareor software elements coupled to (and in communication with) each otherthrough a communications medium. In various embodiments, guest systems522 may communicate with nodes that are external to the computerplatform 500 through network 508.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of a central processing unit (CPU)612 in accordance with certain embodiments. Although CPU 612 depicts aparticular configuration, the cores and other components of CPU 612 maybe arranged in any suitable manner. CPU 612 may comprise any processoror processing device, such as a microprocessor, an embedded processor, aDigital Signal Processor (DSP), a network processor, an applicationprocessor, a co-processor, a System On a Chip (SOC), or other device toexecute code. CPU 612, in the depicted embodiment, includes fourprocessing elements (cores 630 in the depicted embodiment), which mayinclude asymmetric processing elements or symmetric processing elements.However, CPU 612 may include any number of processing elements that maybe symmetric or asymmetric.

In one embodiment, a processing element refers to hardware or logic tosupport a software thread. Examples of hardware processing elementsinclude: a thread unit, a thread slot, a thread, a process unit, acontext, a context unit, a logical processor, a hardware thread, a core,and/or any other element, which is capable of holding a state for aprocessor, such as an execution state or architectural state. In otherwords, a processing element, in one embodiment, refers to any hardwarecapable of being independently associated with code, such as a softwarethread, operating system, application, or other code. A physicalprocessor (or processor socket) typically refers to an integratedcircuit, which potentially includes any number of other processingelements, such as cores or hardware threads.

A core may refer to logic located on an integrated circuit capable ofmaintaining an independent architectural state, wherein eachindependently maintained architectural state is associated with at leastsome dedicated execution resources. A hardware thread may refer to anylogic located on an integrated circuit capable of maintaining anindependent architectural state, wherein the independently maintainedarchitectural states share access to execution resources. As can beseen, when certain resources are shared and others are dedicated to anarchitectural state, the line between the nomenclature of a hardwarethread and core overlaps. Yet often, a core and a hardware thread areviewed by an operating system as individual logical processors, wherethe operating system is able to individually schedule operations on eachlogical processor.

Physical CPU 612 may include any suitable number of cores. In variousembodiments, cores may include one or more out-of-order processor coresor one or more in-order processor cores. However, cores may beindividually selected from any type of core, such as a native core, asoftware managed core, a core adapted to execute a native InstructionSet Architecture (ISA), a core adapted to execute a translated ISA, aco-designed core, or other known core. In a heterogeneous coreenvironment (i.e. asymmetric cores), some form of translation, such asbinary translation, may be utilized to schedule or execute code on oneor both cores.

In the embodiment depicted, core 630A includes an out-of-order processorthat has a front end unit 670 used to fetch incoming instructions,perform various processing (e.g., caching, decoding, branch predicting,etc.) and passing instructions/operations along to an Out-Of-Order (OOO)engine 680. OOO engine 680 performs further processing on decodedinstructions.

A front end 670 may include a decode module coupled to fetch logic todecode fetched elements. Fetch logic, in one embodiment, includesindividual sequencers associated with thread slots of cores 630. Usuallya core 630 is associated with a first ISA, which defines/specifiesinstructions executable on core 630. Often machine code instructionsthat are part of the first ISA include a portion of the instruction(referred to as an opcode), which references/specifies an instruction oroperation to be performed. The decode module may include circuitry thatrecognizes these instructions from their opcodes and passes the decodedinstructions on in the pipeline for processing as defined by the firstISA. For example, decoders may, in one embodiment, include logicdesigned or adapted to recognize specific instructions, such astransactional instructions. As a result of the recognition by thedecoders, the architecture of core 630 takes specific, predefinedactions to perform tasks associated with the appropriate instruction. Itis important to note that any of the tasks, blocks, operations, andmethods described herein may be performed in response to a single ormultiple instructions; some of which may be new or old instructions.Decoders of cores 630, in one embodiment, recognize the same ISA (or asubset thereof). Alternatively, in a heterogeneous core environment, adecoder of one or more cores (e.g., core 630B) may recognize a secondISA (either a subset of the first ISA or a distinct ISA).

In the embodiment depicted, out-of-order engine 680 includes an allocateunit 682 to receive decoded instructions, which may be in the form ofone or more micro-instructions or μops, from front end unit 670, andallocate them to appropriate resources such as registers and so forth.Next, the instructions are provided to a reservation station 684, whichreserves resources and schedules them for execution on one of aplurality of execution units 686A-686N. Various types of execution unitsmay be present, including, for example, Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs),load and store units, Vector Processing Units (VPUs), floating pointexecution units, among others. Results from these different executionunits are provided to a Reorder Buffer (ROB) 688, which take unorderedresults and return them to correct program order.

In the embodiment depicted, both front end unit 670 and out-of-orderengine 680 are coupled to different levels of a memory hierarchy.Specifically shown is an instruction level cache 672, that in turncouples to a mid-level cache 676, that in turn couples to a last levelcache 695. In one embodiment, last level cache 695 is implemented in anon-chip (sometimes referred to as uncore) unit 690. Uncore 690 maycommunicate with system memory 699, which, in the illustratedembodiment, is implemented via embedded DRAM (eDRAM). The variousexecution units 686 within out-of-order engine 680 are in communicationwith a first level cache 674 that also is in communication withmid-level cache 676. Additional cores 630B -630D may couple to lastlevel cache 695 as well.

In various embodiments, uncore 690 (sometimes referred to as a systemagent) may include any suitable logic that is not a part of core 630.For example, uncore 690 may include one or more of a last level cache, acache controller, an on-die memory controller coupled to a systemmemory, a processor interconnect controller (e.g., an Ultra PathInterconnect or similar controller), an on-die I/O controller, or othersuitable on-die logic.

In particular embodiments, uncore 690 may be in a voltage domain and/ora frequency domain that is separate from voltage domains and/orfrequency domains of the cores. That is, uncore 690 may be powered by asupply voltage that is different from the supply voltages used to powerthe cores and/or may operate at a frequency that is different from theoperating frequencies of the cores.

CPU 612 may also include a Power Control Unit (PCU) 640. In variousembodiments, PCU 640 may control the supply voltages and the operatingfrequencies applied to each of the cores (on a per-core basis) and tothe uncore. PCU 640 may also instruct a core or uncore to enter an idlestate (where no voltage and clock are supplied) when not performing aworkload.

In various embodiments, PCU 640 may detect one or more stresscharacteristics of a hardware resource, such as the cores and theuncore. A stress characteristic may comprise an indication of an amountof stress that is being placed on the hardware resource. As examples, astress characteristic may be a voltage or frequency applied to thehardware resource; a power level, current level, or voltage level sensedat the hardware resource; a temperature sensed at the hardware resource;or other suitable measurement. In various embodiments, multiplemeasurements (e.g., at different locations) of a particular stresscharacteristic may be performed when sensing the stress characteristicat a particular instance of time. In various embodiments, PCU 640 maydetect stress characteristics at any suitable interval.

In various embodiments, PCU 640 may comprise a microcontroller thatexecutes embedded firmware to perform various operations associated withstress monitoring described herein. In one embodiment, PCU 640 performssome or all of the PCU functions described herein using hardware withoutexecuting software instructions. For example, PCU 640 may include fixedand/or programmable logic to perform the functions of the PCU.

In various embodiments, PCU 640 is a component that is discrete from thecores 630. In particular embodiments, PCU 640 runs at a clock frequencythat is different from the clock frequencies used by cores 630. In someembodiments where PCU is a microcontroller, PCU 640 executesinstructions according to an ISA that is different from an ISA used bycores 630.

In various embodiments, CPU 612 may also include a nonvolatile memory650 to store stress information (such as stress characteristics,incremental stress values, accumulated stress values, stressaccumulation rates, or other stress information) associated with cores630 or uncore 690, such that when power is lost, the stress informationis maintained.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a computing architecture 700 according toone or more examples of the present specification. In this example,there is provided a processing block 702, and a NIC 704. In this case,processing block 702 includes a plurality of cores 710, specificallycores 710-1, 710-2, 710-3, and 710-4. Each core 710 includes its owncaching agent 720. Specifically, core 710-1 has caching agent 720-1.Core 710-2 has caching agent 720-2. Core 710-3 has caching agent 720-3.And core 710-4 has caching agent 710-4. Note that the inclusion of fourcores and four caching agents in this example is intended to illustratethe operational principle. In practice, processing block 702 may includeone core with one caching agent, or it may include many cores with manycaching agents. In modern data centers, individual nodes may have asmany as 64 to 128 cores.

In this example, processing block 702 interfaces with NIC 704 via PCIeinterface 776. Thus, NIC 704 includes a host PCIe interface 772. Notethat a PCIe interconnect is used herein as a nonlimiting example. Inother embodiments, the interconnect may be any suitable interconnect orbus, including an on-die interconnect for an on-die NIC. Thus, host PCIeinterface 772 may be referred to more generically as an interconnectinterface, which may include an interface for communicatively couplingto any suitable interconnect.

Also included with NIC 704 is NIC logic 706, coprocessor 708, and NICmemory 714. Finally, NIC 704 includes a network interface 770, which isprovided to communicatively couple NIC 704 to a network or fabric, suchas an Intel® OmniPath fabric or an Ethernet network.

NIC logic 706 may include the ordinary logic for performing a networkinterface according to known functions. This includes translatingtraffic from interface 772 and directing the traffic to networkinterface 770, and vice versa.

Similarly, network interface 770 may, in some embodiments, be a simplenetwork interface that provides ordinary interconnection to a network orfabric.

As described above, coprocessor 708 provides processing services thatoffload certain intensive and repetitive tasks from cores 710. These mayinclude, by way of nonlimiting example, security, compression,encryption, or other repetitive tasks. Coprocessor 708 may be an FPGA,an ASIC, a programmable processor with associated software, a firmwaredevice, or some other combination of programmable logic. Coprocessor 708is provided with a NIC memory 714, which is a memory block thatcoprocessor 708 uses to perform its functions. NIC 804 includes a NICmemory 814, which includes both a shared memory 830 and a private memory832.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a computing architecture 800 according toone or more examples of the present specification. In this example,there is provided a processing block 802 and NIC 804. Processing block802 includes cores 710-1, 710-2, 710-3, and 710-4. These operaterespectively with caching agents 720-1, 720-2, 720-3, and 720-4. Theidentical numbers to FIG. 7 are used herein to illustrate that in someembodiments, no architectural changes may be required to cores 710-1through 710-4, and caching agents 720-1 through 720-4. Rather, these maysimply be programmed or configured to map certain address spaces toshared memory 830.

Similarly, NIC 804 includes NIC logic 706, network interface 770, andcoprocessor 708. As before, the identical numbers to FIG. 7 are usedherein to illustrate that in certain embodiments, these may be identicalor substantially similar to the blocks provided in NIC 704 of FIG. 7.

In this example, NIC memory 814 is divided into shared memory 830, andprivate memory 832. NIC memory 814 is managed by caching agent 822.

In this case, caching agent 720-1 maps a high region of DRAM to ordinaryDRAM address spaces 840. Caching agent 720-1 maps a lower region of DRAMto the shared memory 830.

By way of nonlimiting example, an application running on core 710-1(e.g., a server engine 324 as in FIG. 3, providing services to a clientengine 224 as in FIG. 2) may write to a memory location in shared memory830, and generate a network or fabric request. The network or fabricrequest may be sent via PCIe channels to NIC 804. Host PCIe interface872 may then sink the request to the NIC.

Next, coprocessor 708 may process the request. During this processing, acolliding memory operation may occur, such as NIC logic 706 trying towrite to the same memory location. In some cases, caching agent 822 maygenerate snoops to maintain cache coherency, in order to resolveconflicts.

In one embodiment, once a transaction occurs, the transaction may becopied into shared memory 830. In the meantime, an application on NIC804 may generate a request targeting NIC memory range that is cached inthe host. In this case the caching agent in the NIC may generate a snoopto the compute element caching that particular memory range followingthe implemented coherency protocol (MESIF, MESI, etc.).

Finally, as necessary, the request is sent to the fabric via networkinterface 770.

Host PCIe interface 872 may be extended to understand that one or morededicated virtual channels or lanes may be used to tunnel memory trafficto and from shared memory 830. Traffic coming from those lanes orchannels may be forwarded to caching agent 822. Caching agent 822processes requests coming from cores 710 and from within coprocessor708. Note that this architecture may also work with multiple NICs 804,which may be connected via a plurality of PCIe buses 776. Requests fromother NICs may be tunneled by the PCIe node agents to the correspondingNIC 804. Based on the request, caching agent 822 may generate readrequests to the local memory, snoops to coprocessor 708, or snoops toCPU side caches.

PCIe interface 870 may also be extended to include System AddressDecoder (SAD) 824, which maps a given address range to each NIC 804.Peer NICs' shared memory addresses may be accessed by NIC 804 byaccessing the specific address ranges. The PCIe node agent may rerouterequests when the address range is owned by a given NIC to thatparticular NIC. This architecture may work essentially transparently, asfrom the perspective of core 710, each access is simply a read to orwrite from a memory address.

In some embodiments, and particularly embodiments where a plurality ofcaching agents provide shared NIC memory, a SAD 824 may include adecoding rule that maps shared memory 830 into the shared DRAM addressrange 842. The caching agents 720 and 822 forward requests directed tothese to shared memory 830 via PCIe bus 776. Advantageously, in someembodiments, no additional architectural changes are needed forprocessing block 802. The existing DRAM decoding rules in caching agent720 may be used instead. Caching agent 720 forwards memory requests inthe range of NIC-shared DRAM 842 in QPI or KTI form via PCIe bus 776.

In some examples, PCIe bus 776 may be augmented with one or more speciallanes for tunneling memory requests between caching agents 720-1 andcaching agent 822. These extra lanes may also be responsible forforwarding requests coming from coprocessor 708 caching agent 822, suchas snoops, to the proper core 710 within processing block 802. Note thatalthough one caching agent 822 is illustrated in this example, multiplecaching agents could also be included to increase throughput. A hashingfunction on the address may be used to decide the caching agent 822 thatis the home for a given address.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a data center 900, illustrating one exampleapplication of the teachings of the present specification.

In the example of FIG. 9, there is provided a processing block 802, withprocessing block 802 communicatively coupled to a plurality of NICs 804,specifically NIC 804-1, NIC 804-2, NIC 804-3, and NIC 804-4. NIC 804-1is communicatively coupled to processing block 802 via PCIe interface776-1, NIC 804-2 is communicatively coupled to processing block 802 viaPCIe interface 776-2, processing block 802 is communicatively coupled toNIC 804-3 via PCIe interface 776-3, and processing block 802 iscommunicatively coupled to NIC 804-4 via PCIe interface 776-4.

Each NIC 804 receives incoming traffic. For example, data center 900 maybe providing search services, so that each NIC 804 receives a largevolume of incoming search requests. Each NIC 804 also performs trafficanalysis offloading. This frees the CPUs or cores of processing block802 from having to perform the traffic analysis.

Both NIC 804-1 and NIC 804-3 include a store of shared metadata 950-1,while NIC 804-2 and NIC 804-4 have a store of shared metadata 950-2.

Data center 900 presents a network intensive application, such as aserver for search services. In this case, in addition to serving Webrequests that are CPU-intensive, data center 900 needs to contextualizesearches and perform and maintain traffic analysis (for example, howmany users of a given demographic access a given set of objects orservices). Because NICs 804 are performing the traffic analysis, thisfunction is offloaded from the CPUs, thus freeing up many CPU cycles.

However, even the task of coordinating with NICs 804 and switching backand forth between serving requests and transacting sends and receiveswith NICs 804 can consume a large number of CPU cycles and may drive upthe cache miss rate. Thus, data center 901 employs the shared memoryarchitecture of the present specification. With this shared memoryarchitecture, CPUs within processing block 802 coordinate with NICs 804directly via the shared DRAM area. This frees up CPU cycles that can beused to provide higher server throughput. This also reduces the latencyof processing packets, because the CPUs and NICs 804 wait only on truedependencies, instead of waiting on completions and wake-ups. Thus,overall, this architecture streamlines the computing and communications,and improves TCO and performance.

FIGS. 10, 11, and 12 are signal flow diagrams illustrating signal flowsaccording to one or more examples of the present specification. In eachof these flow diagrams, signals may pass between a core 710, a cachingagent 720, a PCIe agent 870, a host PCIe interface 872, a caching agent822, and a shared memory space 830.

FIG. 10 illustrates a read flow (MESI Read For Ownership (RFO))according to one or more examples of the present specification. In thisexample, the RFO may be generated by an application running on a core710.

In this example, core 710 issues the read flow to caching agent 720.Caching agent 720 then assigns the PCIe agent as the SAD home of theread flow.

Caching agent 720 issues the read flow to PCIe agent 870. PCIe agent 870tunnels the read flow to PCIe host interface 872. PCIe host interface872 may detunnel the read flow, and issue it to caching agent 822.

Caching agent 822 issues a read instruction to shared memory space 830.Shared memory 830 then returns the data to caching agent 822.

Caching agent 822 issues the data plus the read return (MESI GOE) toPCIe interface 872.

PCIe interface 872 issues a tunneled data plus GOE to PCIe agent 870.PCIe agent 870 may detunnel the data plus GOE, and issue it to cachingagent 720. Finally, caching agent 720 issues the data plus GOE to core710.

FIG. 11 illustrates a signal flow for a writeback according to one ormore examples of the present specification. The writeback (WB) namingconvention is used by correlation to evictions in the core or Last LevelCache (LLC). However, this may also include other types of writeback tomemory such as flush flows. Conceptually, this flow may cover data sentback from one of the cores 710 to shared memory 830.

Core 710 issues the writeback to caching agent 720. Caching agent 720homes the writeback to the PCIe agent. Caching agent 720 then issues thewriteback to PCIe agent 870.

PCIe agent 870 tunnels the writeback and issues a tunneled writeback toPCIe interface 872.

PCIe interface 872 detunnels the writeback and issues it to cachingagent 822. Caching agent 822 then issues a write instruction to sharedmemory 830.

Shared memory 830 issues an acknowledgment (ACK) to caching agent 822.Caching agent 822 issues ACK plus MESI GOI to PCIe interface 872.

PCIe interface 872 tunnels the ACK plus GOI and issues it to PCIe agent870.

PCIe agent 870 detunnels the ACK plus GOI and issues it to caching agent720. Finally, caching agent 720 issues the ACK plus GOI to core 710.

FIG. 12 illustrates a snoop flow according to one or more examples ofthe present specification.

A “snoopy” cache is a cache that performs bus validation for cachecoherency. When a memory address or datum is shared by a plurality ofcaches, it may be necessary to ensure that the caches remain coherent.When an agent makes a change to the shared datum, the change ispropagated out to the other caches. Each cache may employ a “bussnooper,” and each bus snooper monitors every transaction on the bus.When a transaction occurs modifying the shared datum, all snoopers checkto see whether their respective caches have the same copy of the shareddatum. If a cache has the correct shared datum, its snooper issues anaction to ensure cache coherency, such as a flush or an invalidation ofthe cache block. The snooper may also invalidate the cache block, asappropriate.

A snoop may occur when a given line accessed by the core is currentlyused by coprocessor 708. Caching agent 822 may thus invalidate the lineand send the data back to core 710. The same flow may also be used inthe case where coprocessor 708 requests access to a line that iscurrently being used by one of the cores 710 in processing block 804. Inthis case, caching agent 822 may issue the snoop to the core of the nodeusing the PCIe tunneling.

By way of example, core 710 issues an RFO to caching agent 720. Cachingagent 720 homes the RFO to PCIe agent 870. Caching agent 720 then issuesthe RFO to PCIe agent 870. PCIe agent 870 tunnels the RFO and deliversit to PCIe interface 872.

PCIe interface 872 detunnels the RFO and issues it to caching agent 822.In this case, caching agent 822 determines that the line being accessedis currently used by coprocessor 708, and issues a snoop. Thus, cachingagent 822 issues MESI FWD GO2I to shared memory 830.

Shared memory 830 issues ACK plus data back to caching agent 822.

Caching agent 822 issues data plus GOE back to PCIe interface 872.

PCIe interface 872 tunnels the data plus GOE, and issues it to PCIeagent 870.

PCIe agent 870 issues the data plus GOE to caching agent 720. Finally,caching agent 720 issues the data plus GOE to core 710.

The foregoing outlines features of several embodiments so that thoseskilled in the art may better understand various aspects of the presentdisclosure. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they mayreadily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifyingother processes and structures for carrying out the same purposes and/orachieving the same advantages of the embodiments introduced herein.Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalentconstructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the presentdisclosure, and that they may make various changes, substitutions, andalterations herein without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent disclosure.

All or part of any hardware element disclosed herein may readily beprovided in a System-On-a-Chip (SoC), including a Central ProcessingUnit (CPU) package. An SoC represents an Integrated Circuit (IC) thatintegrates components of a computer or other electronic system into asingle chip. Thus, for example, client devices or server devices may beprovided, in whole or in part, in an SoC. The SoC may contain digital,analog, mixed-signal, and radio frequency functions, all of which may beprovided on a single chip substrate. Other embodiments may include amulti-chip-module (MCM), with a plurality of chips located within asingle electronic package and configured to interact closely with eachother through the electronic package. In various other embodiments, thecomputing functionalities disclosed herein may be implemented in one ormore silicon cores in Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs),Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and other semiconductor chips.

Note also that in certain embodiments, some of the components may beomitted or consolidated. In a general sense, the arrangements depictedin the figures may be more logical in their representations, whereas aphysical architecture may include various permutations, combinations,and/or hybrids of these elements. It is imperative to note thatcountless possible design configurations can be used to achieve theoperational objectives outlined herein. Accordingly, the associatedinfrastructure has a myriad of substitute arrangements, design choices,device possibilities, hardware configurations, software implementations,and equipment options.

In a general sense, any suitably-configured processor can execute anytype of instructions associated with the data to achieve the operationsdetailed herein. Any processor disclosed herein could transform anelement or an article (for example, data) from one state or thing toanother state or thing. In another example, some activities outlinedherein may be implemented with fixed logic or programmable logic (forexample, software and/or computer instructions executed by a processor)and the elements identified herein could be some type of a programmableprocessor, programmable digital logic (for example, a Field ProgrammableGate Array (FPGA), an Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), anElectrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM)), an ASICthat includes digital logic, software, code, electronic instructions,flash memory, optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD ROMs, magnetic or opticalcards, other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storingelectronic instructions, or any suitable combination thereof.

In operation, a storage may store information in any suitable type oftangible, nontransitory storage medium (for example, Random AccessMemory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA), Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), ElectricallyErasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), etc.), software, hardware (forexample, processor instructions or microcode), or in any other suitablecomponent, device, element, or object where appropriate and based onparticular needs. Furthermore, the information being tracked, sent,received, or stored in a processor could be provided in any database,register, table, cache, queue, control list, or storage structure, basedon particular needs and implementations, all of which could bereferenced in any suitable timeframe. Any of the memory or storageelements disclosed herein, should be construed as being encompassedwithin the broad terms ‘memory’ and ‘storage,’ as appropriate. Anontransitory storage medium herein is expressly intended to include anynontransitory special-purpose or programmable hardware configured toprovide the disclosed operations, or to cause a processor to perform thedisclosed operations.

Computer program logic implementing all or part of the functionalitydescribed herein is embodied in various forms, including, but in no waylimited to, a source code form, a computer executable form, machineinstructions or microcode, programmable hardware, and variousintermediate forms (for example, forms generated by an assembler,compiler, linker, or locator). In an example, source code includes aseries of computer program instructions implemented in variousprogramming languages, such as an object code, an assembly language, ora high-level language such as OpenCL, FORTRAN, C, C++, JAVA, or HTML foruse with various operating systems or operating environments, or inhardware description languages such as Spice, Verilog, and VHDL. Thesource code may define and use various data structures and communicationmessages. The source code may be in a computer executable form (e.g.,via an interpreter), or the source code may be converted (e.g., via atranslator, assembler, or compiler) into a computer executable form, orconverted to an intermediate form such as byte code. Where appropriate,any of the foregoing may be used to build or describe appropriatediscrete or integrated circuits, whether sequential, combinatorial,state machines, or otherwise.

In one example embodiment, any number of electrical circuits of theFIGURES may be implemented on a board of an associated electronicdevice. The board can be a general circuit board that can hold variouscomponents of the internal electronic system of the electronic deviceand, further, provide connectors for other peripherals. Morespecifically, the board can provide the electrical connections by whichthe other components of the system can communicate electrically. Anysuitable processor and memory can be suitably coupled to the board basedon particular configuration needs, processing demands, and computingdesigns. Other components such as external storage, additional sensors,controllers for audio/video display, and peripheral devices may beattached to the board as plug-in cards, via cables, or integrated intothe board itself. In another example, the electrical circuits of theFIGURES may be implemented as stand-alone modules (e.g., a device withassociated components and circuitry configured to perform a specificapplication or function) or implemented as plug-in modules intoapplication specific hardware of electronic devices.

Note that with the numerous examples provided herein, interaction may bedescribed in terms of two, three, four, or more electrical components.However, this has been done for purposes of clarity and example only. Itshould be appreciated that the system can be consolidated orreconfigured in any suitable manner. Along similar design alternatives,any of the illustrated components, modules, and elements of the FIGURESmay be combined in various possible configurations, all of which arewithin the broad scope of this specification. In certain cases, it maybe easier to describe one or more of the functionalities of a given setof flows by only referencing a limited number of electrical elements. Itshould be appreciated that the electrical circuits of the FIGURES andtheir teachings are readily scalable and can accommodate a large numberof components, as well as more complicated/sophisticated arrangementsand configurations. Accordingly, the examples provided should not limitthe scope or inhibit the broad teachings of the electrical circuits aspotentially applied to a myriad of other architectures.

Numerous other changes, substitutions, variations, alterations, andmodifications may be ascertained to one skilled in the art and it isintended that the present disclosure encompass all such changes,substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications as fallingwithin the scope of the appended claims. In order to assist the UnitedStates Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and, additionally, anyreaders of any patent issued on this application in interpreting theclaims appended hereto, Applicant wishes to note that the Applicant: (a)does not intend any of the appended claims to invoke paragraph six (6)of 35 U.S.C. section 112 (pre-AIA) or paragraph (f) of the same section(post-AIA), as it exists on the date of the filing hereof unless thewords “means for” or “steps for” are specifically used in the particularclaims; and (b) does not intend, by any statement in the specification,to limit this disclosure in any way that is not otherwise expresslyreflected in the appended claims.

Example Implementations

There is disclosed an example of a host-fabric interface (HFI),including: an interconnect interface to communicatively couple the HFIto an interconnect; a network interface to communicatively couple theHFI to a network; network interface logic to provide communicationbetween the interconnect and the network; a coprocessor configured toprovide an offloaded function for the network; a memory; and a cachingagent configured to: designate a region of the memory as a shared memorybetween the HFI and a core communicatively coupled to the HFI via theinterconnect; receive a memory operation directed to the shared memory;and issue a memory instruction to the memory according to the memoryoperation.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation isreceived from the core.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation istunneled, and wherein the interconnect interface is to detunnel thememory operation.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation isdirected to the core.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the interconnect interfaceis to tunnel the memory operation.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation is amemory read.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation is amemory write.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation isoriginated by one of the coprocessor and the core, and wherein thecaching agent is configured to determine that the memory operation isdirected to a memory line currently in use by the other of thecoprocessor and the host.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the caching agent is toissue a snoop to invalidate the line.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the caching agent implementsa coherency protocol selected from a group consisting of MESI, MOSI,MOESI, and MOESIF.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the interconnect interfacecomprises a dedicated channel for the memory operation, wherein theinterconnect interface is to directly route traffic from the dedicatedchannel to the caching agent.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operationincludes a hash to identify a home caching agent of the memoryoperation.

There is also disclosed an example of a caching agent, wherein the HFIcomprises an integrated circuit separate from the core.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the core comprises a cachingagent configured to maintain cache coherency in the shared region of thememory.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the core comprises a cachingagent configured to maintain cache coherency in the shared region of thememory.

There is also disclosed an example of one or more tangible,non-transitory computer readable storage mediums having encoded thereoninstructions for instructing an apparatus to: communicatively couple theapparatus to an interconnect; communicatively couple the apparatus to anetwork; provide network interface logic to provide communicationbetween the interconnect and the network; and provide a caching agentto: designate a region of a memory as a shared memory between theapparatus and a core communicatively coupled to the apparatus via theinterconnect; receive a memory operation directed to the shared memory;and issue a memory instruction to the memory according to the memoryoperation.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation isdirected to the core.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein an interconnect interface isto tunnel the memory operation.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operation isoriginated by one of a coprocessor and the core, and wherein the cachingagent is configured to determine that the memory operation is directedto a memory line currently in use by the other of the coprocessor andthe core.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the caching agent is toissue a snoop to invalidate the line.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the caching agent implementsa coherency protocol selected from a group consisting of MESI, MOSI,MOESI, and MOESIF.

There is also disclosed an example, wherein the memory operationincludes a hash to identify a home caching agent of the memoryoperation.

There is also disclosed an example of a host device, comprising: aprocessor; a memory; and a caching agent configured to: map a region ofthe memory to a shared memory of an intelligent network interface.

There is also disclosed an example of a host device, further comprising:logic for providing an interconnect; and logic for providing a dedicatedchannel for providing communication between a host processor and ashared memory of an intelligent network interface comprising networkinterface logic, a coprocessor, and a memory having a shared memoryregion, wherein the memory operation is directed to the host.

There is also disclosed an example of a host device, further comprisinga system address decoder configured to receive memory operations from aplurality of intelligent network interfaces, and to provide a hash tohome the memory operations.

1. A host-fabric interface (HFI), comprising: an interconnect interfaceto communicatively couple the HFI to an interconnect; a networkinterface to communicatively couple the HFI to a network; networkinterface logic to provide communication between the interconnect andthe network; a coprocessor configured to provide an offloaded functionfor the network; a memory; and a caching agent configured to: designatea region of the memory as a shared memory between the HFI and a corecommunicatively coupled to the HFI via the interconnect; receive amemory operation directed to the shared memory; and issue a memoryinstruction to the memory according to the memory operation.
 2. The HFIof claim 1, wherein the memory operation is received from the core. 3.The HFI of claim 2, wherein the memory operation is tunneled, andwherein the interconnect interface is to detunnel the memory operation.4. The HFI of claim 1, wherein the memory operation is directed to thecore.
 5. The HFI of claim 4, wherein the interconnect interface is totunnel the memory operation.
 6. The HFI of claim 1, wherein the memoryoperation is a memory read.
 7. The HFI of claim 1, wherein the memoryoperation is a memory write.
 8. The HFI of claim 1, wherein the memoryoperation is originated by one of the coprocessor and the core, andwherein the caching agent is configured to determine that the memoryoperation is directed to a memory line currently in use by the other ofthe coprocessor and the core.
 9. The HFI of claim 8, wherein the cachingagent is to issue a snoop to invalidate the line.
 10. The HFI of claim1, wherein the caching agent implements a coherency protocol selectedfrom a group consisting of MESI, MOSI, MOESI, and MOESIF.
 11. The HFI ofclaim 1, wherein the interconnect interface comprises a dedicatedchannel for the memory operation, wherein the interconnect interface isto directly route traffic from the dedicated channel to the cachingagent.
 12. The HFI of claim 1, wherein the memory operation includes ahash to identify a home caching agent of the memory operation.
 13. TheHFI of claim 1, wherein the HFI comprises an integrated circuit separatefrom the core.
 14. An integrated circuit comprising the HFI and the coreof claim 1, wherein the core comprises a caching agent configured tomaintain cache coherency in the shared region of the memory.
 15. Amultichip package comprising the HFI and the core of claim 1, whereinthe core comprises a caching agent configured to maintain cachecoherency in the shared region of the memory.
 16. One or more tangible,non-transitory computer readable storage mediums having encoded thereoninstructions for instructing an apparatus to: communicatively couple theapparatus to an interconnect; communicatively couple the apparatus to anetwork; provide network interface logic to provide communicationbetween the interconnect and the network; and provide a caching agentto: designate a region of a memory as a shared memory between theapparatus and a core communicatively coupled to the apparatus via theinterconnect; receive a memory operation directed to the shared memory;and issue a memory instruction to the memory according to the memoryoperation.
 17. The one or more tangible, non-transitory computerreadable mediums of claim 16, wherein the memory operation is directedto the core.
 18. The one or more tangible, non-transitory computerreadable mediums of claim 16, wherein an interconnect interface is totunnel the memory operation.
 19. (canceled)
 20. (canceled) 21.(canceled)
 22. The one or more tangible, non-transitory computerreadable mediums of claim 16, wherein the memory operation includes ahash to identify a home caching agent of the memory operation.
 23. Ahost device, comprising: a processor; a memory; and a caching agentconfigured to: map a region of the memory to a shared memory of anintelligent network interface.
 24. (canceled)
 25. (canceled)